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Thursday, February 1, 2018

Let me get this right; before Republicans tried to figure out how much it would cost to fix up our crumbling national infrastructure, they decided instead to first cut federal tax revenue by $1.5 trillion?

The big story behind Trump's $1.5 trillion road building plan is how little the federal government is going to kick in over 10 years. Ready for it? Just $200 billion. With both the tax cut and infrastructure bill, we're now spending/or in the hole $3 trillion.

SCHAPER: President Trump's plan to invest billions into fixing the
nation's crumbling infrastructure may burden state and local governments and
lead to a greater reliance on tolls White House officials say of that $1.5
trillion the president wants to spend, only $200 billion would come from the
federal government, spread out over 10 years. Local governments would have to
come up with much of the rest. And Wright says cities and states already
shoulder a significant share of the transportation funding burden.

BUD WRIGHT of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials: "About 80 percent of the investment that's being made
on highways today comes from state and local governments. And the number is
somewhere around 75 percent for public transportation."

SCHAPER: Wright says more than 30 states have raised
gasoline or other taxes in recent years to make up for a lack of federal
funding. So few may be able to stomach raising taxes even more to come up with
what the president's plan would require them to put up. Another concern is how
the money would be distributed.

SCHAPER: President Trump is also calling for greater private
sector investments in infrastructure. Sarah Badawi of the Progressive Change
Campaign Committee calls that a scam.

SARAH BADAWI: And the result - families will pay tolls to
Wall Street just to drive home from work.

MARYSUE BENNETT, president of Chicago's Metropolitan
Planning Council, a regional planning nonprofit: “We have to decide about
the economic value. We have to decide about the equity impacts, who's being
left behind in our changing economy and making sure that we don't invest just
in the places that are already successful.”